The beauty of an Absurd

Imagine the following. Robert Fulton invents a time machine just after he invented the steam ship on the Hudson. He feels sorry for the loss of Roman legions in Gaul, Spain or Africa and gifts Julius Caesar one of his steam boats, so that the Romans will have naval supremacy. Now, Julius Caesar can only see that the ship is large holds a lot of men and can easily be spotted by the enemy. Therefore it is an easier target – not to mention the construction of the boilers and constant need for coal that the Romans never mined. To Caesar this boat is a burden not an advantage.

Not much different is our (American) tendency to develop democracies all over the world and to export our ways and systems as much as possible. True, it is a noble effort, but it is of little practical use to many of those nations who have either no compunction of democracy, or who just want to get rid of some remaining tyrant in their homeland. Our democracy could easily be a terrible burden to them causing them greater havoc, and putting their progress at peril. The mindset of many people from the Eastern block countries is not yet at a level where democracy would prosper. Uzbekistan is just one of the recently “democratized Russian satellite states”.

On the other hand if we (The United States) are doing all of this to undermine Russia for the reason of some ancient fears – we are doing a pretty good job – showing Russians that their old satellite countries are now dancing to our tunes.

Is it any wonder a functioning grenade was thrown during President Bush speach in another ex-Soviet satelite state (Georgia)?

Iliya Pavlovich PhD